“To be selected for the IDDRC program, an institution must meet rigorous scientific criteria,” said Melissa Parisi, chief of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development’s Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Branch. “We eagerly await the MIND Institute’s contributions to the centers program and to intellectual and developmental disabilities research.”

Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research Centers conduct comprehensive interdisciplinary research that promotes the discovery and translation of basic science investigations into clinical applications. The designation will provide the MIND Institute with new tools to further strengthen its neurodevelopmental research across the schools, programs and departments of the entire university, cementing its stature as “the house that collaboration built,” and knitting together the work of basic science researchers and clinicians to advance the development of new therapies for people with neurodevelopmental disorders. MIND Institute Director Leonard Abbeduto, Tsakopoulos-Vismara Endowed Chair in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, directs the new center.

“Across its schools and colleges, divisions and programs, UC Davis has made a firm and lasting commitment to build better, healthier lives for children with neurodevelopmental disorders,” Abbeduto said.

“Designation as an IDDRC gives the MIND Institute critical new resources that will allow it to advance its mission to speed transformation of basic scientific discoveries into clinical applications, in order to aide children and adults affected by neurodevelopmental disorders and their families worldwide and impact their lives today,” he said.

The IDDRC co-directors are Judy Van de Water, an internationally known immunologist and professor in the Department of Internal Medicine who is highly respected for her innovative studies of the immune system and autism, and Tony J. Simon, a cognitive neuroscientist and professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences who is a world leader in research on chromosome 22q11.2 deletion syndrome (also known as Velocardiofacial or DiGeorge syndrome).

“The IDDRC designation is a game-changer for us,” Van de Water said. “It will facilitate the MIND Institute doing really big science — more integrated and translational studies, using highly innovative research techniques. The IDDRC network will allow sharing these discoveries and technologies with our own researchers as well as with our sister IDDRCs around the country.”

The MIND Institute was founded only 16 years ago, spearheaded by six passionate and visionary families. They were determined to create a research institute where parents, community leaders, researchers, clinicians and volunteers would collaborate to study and treat the disorder and other neurodevelopmental conditions. They tirelessly fundraised and lobbied the university and the State of California to establish the institute in 1998.

“The designation is huge,” said Sarah Gardner, a member of one of the MIND Institute’s Founding Families who helped to establish the institute 16 years ago. “It speaks volumes about the people we have in that building – where their hearts, minds and souls are every single day when they walk through those doors.”

“Would I like to be able to say that we have a cure for autism?’ Gardner continued. “Yes. But I believe that we’ll be able to do it.”

For more information about the institute and its Distinguished Lecturer Series, including previous presentations in this series, is available on the Web at http://mindinstitute.ucdavis.edu.

***

*The Eunice Kennedy Shriver Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities program, established one year after the NICHD’s founding, supports researchers whose goals are to advance understanding of a variety of conditions and topics related to Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (IDD). The NICHD Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (IDDB) Branch funds the program, which includes 15 research centers, located at universities and children’s hospitals throughout the country.

***

Do you have questions? Contact me HERE and I will do my very best to help.